Off-duty New Orleans police officers can be seen all across the city working their second jobs: standing guard outside stores, at the Superdome during Saints games and patrolling certain neighborhoods that pay for the extra service.

View full sizeJohn McCusker, The Times-PicayunePolice Chief Ronal Serpas discusses the Department of Justice analysis of the operations of the New Orleans Police Department as Thomas Perez of the Department of Justice and Mayor Mitch Landrieu listen at Gallier Hall on Thursday. March 17 2011

"We believe it will be impossible to transform the culture of NOPD without dramatic change to the detail system," Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez said at a news conference Thursday. "As one of our contributors commented, 'The paid detail system is the aorta of corruption within the New Orleans Police Department.'"

The unregulated system for awarding the work -- in which NOPD officers coordinate and select fellow officers to work certain details -- is ripe for corruption, the report contends. The report also argues that the detail system contributes to inequitable policing in New Orleans, because better-off neighborhoods can tax themselves to pay for extra policing, while poorer neighborhoods -- which arguably need more police presence -- must rely on the local district for baseline services.

Rafael Goyeneche, president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, agreed that the NOPD's detail system needs to be changed, but noted that it is a byproduct of New Orleans' failure to support its police department.

"The reason we have the detail system is because we've always tried to do things on the cheap here," he said. "Rather than pay police officers the prevailing rate in the region, we've always allowed officers to supplement their income with details."

Over the years, in response to criticism about the lax oversight of details, the NOPD has made some changes in the rules for off-duty details. In the 1990s, former Superintendent Richard Pennington prohibited officers from working details at bars, and also limited how many hours officers could work their second jobs.

More recently, Superintendent Ronal Serpas initiated further changes, prohibiting deputy superintendents from working or coordinating details, as well as outlawing the prevalent system of cash payments for the work. Serpas also created a centralized program for officers to alert the NOPD about their details, which will allow the agency for the first time to track these outside jobs systematically.

But the Justice Department report said other police departments have "far more checks" on moonlighting. In New Orleans, by contrast, detail coordinators "possess an inordinate amount of power." One bonus for coordinators is that they often receive compensation for their role -- described in some cases as a "little off the top" -- for doling out the work, the report noted.

In some cases, detail coordinators are ranked lower in the NOPD's chain of command than officers they give off-duty work to. This means that supervisors are put in a position of asking a subordinate for extra work, a situation the report noted could make the supervisor timid about finding fault with the on-duty job performance of the detail coordinator.

The inadequate regulation of details, as well as lack of prohibitions on officers soliciting work, creates an environment where officers can essentially extort businesses to hire detail officers, the report concluded. Justice Department investigators described one business owner who said he was told that if officers weren't hired, no police would protect his business.

Officers who work the full 28 additional hours they are allowed to allocate to their second jobs could show up to both workplaces fatigued, the report found. Some within the criminal justice system described officers who "were often too tired to perform their duties on the street and in the courtroom," the authors wrote.

Justice Department investigators said they found evidence that in some cases officers are "more committed to their details than their work for NOPD," describing one officer who called in sick 38 times over two years, but showed up faithfully for his off-duty job. They noted that other officers have been caught double-dipping or "ghosting," working details while they were actually on the clock for the NOPD.

Representatives of NOPD's police unions were unavailable to comment Friday about the Justice Department's criticisms of the system of details.

If NOPD continues to allow details, the Justice Department report recommended creating a centralized office that will handle requests for police security, as well as dole out the work. Such an office is used in Miami, where the system actually generates money for the city as well -- a key factor as police equipment is typically used when officers work details.

A centralized office would also be able to establish uniform pay rates, determined by officers' rank, for the outside work, the report said. Police supervisors should also be able to pull officers off the details if an emergency happens, they report suggested.

Goyeneche said a centralized system with standard pay rates is a good model the crime commission has long advocated, adding that the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office uses such a system. "The department knows every officer who is working for every event and business in the community," he said.